A blog and photo journal about the natural history of north-west England and beyond
Mistletoe growing at Parsonage Gardens, Disbury – fairly safe to assume its not been planted ! Local knowledge suggests that at some point between 1912-1919 Alderman Fletcher Moss had mistletoe ‘planted’ on the old apple tree in his Parsonage Garden in Didsbury. The original Read More …
Coming to a car park near you! It appears that up in northern Finland and Russia 2012 was a good breeding season for the Bohemian Waxwing. Unfortunately their normal winter diet of Rowan berries failed leading to the Waxwings arriving in the UK. Thankfully over Read More …
Amongst the terns and Black-headed Gulls on Brownsea Island we came across one of the 450 pairs of Mediterranean Gulls that are thought to have made Britain their home since the first breeding attempt in 1968. With the blue sky, temperature of 80 degrees, sun Read More …
A few photo’s from a brief visit to the Sandwich Tern colony at the DWT reserve on Brownsea Island. The noise and non-stop action certainly helped to make it a memorable visit. In addition to the Sandwich Terns there’s was also several pairs of Common Read More …
Another very impressive National Nature Reserve and country park to the west of Swanage town centre overlooking the bay. To date it’s the best public park I’ve been to in this country it really is a superb area. Even if you can’t visit the park Read More …
Red Squirrel – Formby Highlights from a trip to the seaside. It was actually our first visit to Formby since the devastating outbreak of Squirrelpox in 2008. Great to see the Red Squirrels are still around and have remained relatively easy to find. Since Read More …
Dipper on the River Mersey downstream from Cheadle Bridge, Manchester As recently as 30 years ago the Mersey was considered to be the most polluted river in Europe. In 1983 the then Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine stated “…the river Read More …
For once the sun came out and we were fortunate enough to be able to get out for a couple of hours on Sunday. After the long cold, dark days of winter the local wildlife is quickly responding to the arrival of Spring. First stop Read More …
Courtship begins. A pair of Goosanders on the River Mersey opposite Chorlton Water Park. Until 4 years ago Goosanders were winter visitors departing north in late February/early March. More recently they’ve started to breed further upstream and can now be seen all year Read More …